Detective 789 – Batman crushes it, and the Tailor begins

Bolles, Lilly and Davis conclude their 2-parter in Detective 789 (Feb. 04).

Batman is tearing up the city, looking for the man now blamed for the murder the previous issue’s main character was sentenced to prison for.

When he finds him, the reaction is very similar to that of the woman last issue, which somehow clues Batman in that she must be lying, and the real killer.  I really don’t follow the logic.

But he’s right, and the stone is the key, somewhat magical.  It drives those it possesses into uncontrollable rage.

But Batman, able to control his rage, is able to crush it in one hand.  Which is really kind of amazing, especially for a magical stone.  But at least it resolves the storyline.

The Tailor begins in this issue, by AJ Lieberman, Jean-Jacques Dzialowski, and Daniel Green.

The titular character is a specialist who designs and makes costumes for Gotham’s villains, making him Batman’s version of the Flash’s Gambi.  But this is Gotham, so he is a much darker and more serious character.  A subway car of passengers is being held hostage by a man in armor, and Batman suspects the Tailor made the suit.  He denies it, and refuses to help, as that would ruin his rep in the underworld.

Batman gets Oracle to call up the security cam from the car, and the Tailor sees that his daughter is one of the hostages.

The story continues next issue.

 

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Detective 788 – the rage of the innocent, and the Dog Catcher ends

Paul Bolles, Michael Lilly, Sean Parsons and Dan Davis begin an odd two-part tale in Detective 788 (Jan. 04).

A violent and destructive man breaks out of prison, seeking to kill those who testified against him for murdering his wife.

His strength is super-human, and the most Batman is able to do is slow him down, while Oracle does her best to arrange having the surviving witness spirited away to safety.

The brutal battle between the two men reminds me of fights between Batman and the original Blockbuster.  But as the story progresses, despite the man’s violence, Batman begins to believe he must have been innocent of the original murder, to hate those who blamed him for it.

This chapter climaxes in the sanitarium where one woman, who did not testify because the murder scene had sent her into severe shock, is on the verge of being attacked.  But the killer winds up dissolving into nothing, leaving only a curiously carved stone behind.  And the woman herself seems to know much more than she should.

The story concludes next issue.

Rick Spears and Rob G bring the Dog Catcher story to a conclusion in this issue.

The Dog Catcher turns over the Joker’s dead dog, and in a Monty Python-esque moment, tries to convince the Joker that the dog is just sleeping.  The Joker is amused, but not so amused that he forgets to shoot the Dog Catcher point blank.

Remarkably, the man survives, as the bullet hit his cigarette lighter.  Knowing he has pushed his luck as far as it can go, the Dog Catcher leaves his job,and Gotham.

Somewhat low-key, but darkly funny.

 

Detective 782 – Batman vs the Charlatan, and those darn roses

Brubaker, Castillo and Von Grawbadger bring their Charlatan story to a close in Detective 782 (July 2003).

We finally get to see that the Penguin is alive.  I knew he was.  He’s been in hiding the whole time, whining about it making life miserable for Montoya.

Batman visits Crane while he’s at Arkham, and gets the last piece of the puzzle.  The Scarecrow used Sloan for his experiments, and wound up blocking his ability to feel fear in any way.

Then it’s off to try to find Two-Face before Sloan kills him.

Batman does catch up to him, only to find that he was the target all along, and Harvey Dent that bait, just as the plan had been eight years earlier.

It’s a big, burning finale.  A flip of the coin determines Two-Face’s side, and he leaves Sloan to Batman.

Sloan survives, and is visited by his fiancee in the hospital.  I called her his wife in an earlier blog.  My mistake.  She just so fills the role of Gilda Dent that I think of her as the wife.

Great mask, but this is the final appearance of the character to date.  I hope.  Certainly that I know of, and I hate being wrong on this.

The back-up story in this issue, by Jason Hall, Craig Rousseau and Dan Davis, reminds me of a Tales of Gotham City from twenty years earlier.  No specific story, just the style, which centres on a street cleaner, who has noticed the roses that Batman drops off every year.  He has become obsessed with finding out who leaves than, and plans to stake it out that night.

Alfred overhears, and of course Bruce is impossible to talk to, so he turns to Oracle, who enlists Robin, Nightwing and Batgirl to decoy the man.  Tim pretends to be a lost boy.

And then Cassandra pretends to be mugged by Dick.

All of which delays him just long enough to miss Batman leaving the flowers.

I wonder what happened the following year?

Detective 762 – Batman gives Sasha a push, and Slam Bradley ends

Sasha Bordeaux becomes a costumed crime-fighter in Detective 762 (Nov. 01), whether she wants to or not, in a story by Greg Rucka, Rick Burchett, Dan Davis and Rodney Ramos.

As the Internal Affairs investigator takes Renee Montoya around, showing her the evidence and the witnesses, Bruce continues to play the fool, even with Vesper Fairchild.

But he is all business when it comes to Sasha.  She does not want to wear a costume and mask, but he insists.  It would detract from his persona to have her dressed normally, and add to the risk of exposure.  She is also tentative about his retracting line, but he gives her no choice, shoving her off the roof.  Hang on or die.

The training night is interrupted when Batman spots some actual criminals.  He orders Sasha to stay behind.  And like every single other person Batman has trained, she disobeys and dives into the action.

Having seen all the evidence, Renee is brought back to the station.  She confronts Harvey Bullock, who admits the murder.  The guy got away with shooting Gordon, and Harvey couldn’t have that.  He resigns from the force.

Slam Bradley meets with Catwoman in the last issue of his series, by Brubaker and Cooke.  She answers his questions and fills in the gaps, and generally charms Slam.  Enough that he decides to say he couldn’t find anything.

The mayor, the mob and the cops are all upset to hear that Slam is leaving the case without a solution, and express their discontent. But he keeps his mouth shut.

And for this, gets a supporting role in the new Catwoman series, launching the following month.

 

 

Detective 756 – Batman and Superman fight it out in the White House, and the Jacobian goes biblical

The laughs keep on coming as Superman and Batman fight to determine whether Lex Luthor gets to keep his kryptonite ring in Detective 756 (May 2001), the second half of a story that began in the previous issue of Superman, by Rucka, Koi Turnbull and Dan Davis.

Batman feels that with the presidency and the ring, Luthor is simply too powerful, and has decided to retrieve the ring.  Superman, though not faulting his logic, maintains that the ring is Luthor’s possession, and Batman has no right to it.

Because Luthor has had lead-lining put into the walls, Superman is not able to track Batman as easily as he might, and Batman finds enough shadows to hide from the White House security as well.  Sasha spots him, though.  She had accompanied Bruce Wayne on his visit to the White House – and Wayne has once again disappeared.

Superman also spots Sasha, and escorts her out.  But he slips, and calls her by name.  How did he know it?

The fight between the two heroes is almost slapstick, carrying itself through the White House and into the oval office.

Luthor confronts them there, and though Batman does take the ring from his desk, Luthor demands Superman get it from him.  But Batman turns over the ring too easily, in Luthor’s view, and he tests it on Superman, who does not react.  Sure enough, Batman has a second ring, which does cause Superman to keel over.

Luthor kicks the heroes and Lois Lane out, tossing them the fake ring.  But as Lois discovers, the whole thing was a huge set-up.   The fake ring was the real ring, and they were out-conning Luthor.  Superman was able to no react simply because he knew the kryptonite exposure was coming, and he concealed the pain.

Sasha has spent her spare time rifling through Bruce Wayne’s luggage.  And look what she finds.

Fun, and clever.

The Jacobian reaches its penultimate chapter, by Gorfinkel, Johnson and Panosian.

The Jacobian and Leelee are brought to the temple, and all gets explained.

The explanation goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, and Adam and Lilith.  Adam attained great knowledge of the world, which was passed down through his ancestors, to Jacob.  The Jacobian is the long-awaited herald who can manifest the powers of Adam.

Which is all well and good, except that Leelee is really Lilith.